“That’s not it.”
“Not what?”
“I’m just saying I really am a witness. And I’m dying here, so could you take your arm off me already.”
When I shoved off the arm slung around my shoulder, the noona pulled back obediently. Even so, her expression hadn’t quite let go of the suspicion.
“Strange. It doesn’t seem like a lie, but then again, it doesn’t seem like it isn’t, either.”
“It’s really not. If you’re so suspicious, go check the surveillance camera installed where the trash gets dumped. It was right near there, so it should’ve caught it.”
I spoke confidently, recalling the surveillance camera that had been installed at some point on the utility pole the car had crashed into.
“Ah, that one’s fake.”
“……What?”
“They won’t even install a real speed camera where the village actually needs one—you think they’d bother putting up a real camera in some backwater just to catch one illegal dumper? It’s pure decoration.”
I just stared blankly as the noona launched into complaints about her fellow public servants, griping about how they collected taxes diligently while never actually doing their jobs properly. My heart, which had just settled, started stirring again.
Wait, am I actually about to get falsely accused of something at this rate?
This time, I turned serious with genuine sincerity.
“I really am not lying.”
“Fine. If you say so, then it’s so.”
But her giving in that easily was unsettling in its own way. When I showed my own suspicion this time, the noona gave an apologetic smile.
“I told you. It doesn’t seem like a lie. Still, when I asked you about that flower boy earlier, you looked exactly like someone hiding something big, so I wondered, just in case.”
This noona should’ve been a detective, not a cop.
“Anyway, good thing it’s nothing. It’d leave a bad taste in my mouth, locking up the neighbor kid I love like family, you know?”
“……Locking up?”
I gulped again, audibly this time. Suddenly, the noona’s police uniform felt very relevant.
“If I lie to you, do I get arrested?”
“Not to me, you don’t—but lie to a police officer, and yeah, you get arrested.”
Wait, so just because I played dumb about some guy I’m not even sure is my first love, I’m about to end up in jail? Just as my head cleared up with that thought, a nurse’s voice rang out from somewhere down the hall.
“The patient’s awake!”
This time my heart actually dropped.
Choi Seol’s awake?
The moment the name I’d been trying so hard to avoid burrowed naturally into my mind, I took off running down the hallway without a second thought.
“Sir? Sir, are you conscious?”
By the time the bed came into view, I’d already stopped running. The attending doctor, having arrived first, was checking the man’s condition. Soon after, with a groan, the man pushed himself upright.
“Where……. is this?”
At a voice far too composed for a patient, the back of my neck went stiff in an instant. I shouldn’t run into this guy. An alarm rang in my head, but just from hearing his voice alone, my body was already slipping out of my control.
I want to see him closer.
I was taking one step, then another, drawing closer to his bed, when the man, pressing down on the gauze taped to his forehead with a deep frown, turned to look in my direction.
“Han Yeoreum?”
The instant our eyes met, my breath stopped. At the same time, my heart, which had been racing faster and faster, clenched painfully. It was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time.
“It’s you, right?”
When I didn’t answer, the man asked again, his voice laced with certainty. He’d recognized me.
“You two know each other?”
The nurse, glancing back and forth between the man and me, looked puzzled. Her expression seemed to ask, Didn’t you say you didn’t know him? Only then did I realize this wasn’t a moment to be lost in sentiment. Just then, a booming voice came from behind me.
“Hey, Han Yeoreum! Don’t just run off on your own like that…… Huh? He’s actually awake.”
I’m losing my mind. Running into a classmate by chance on the street was common enough, sure, but this was a coincidence beyond all reason. In some backwater village five hours by car south of Seoul, the driver who’d swerved to avoid a cat and the witness to the accident just happened to be former classmates? It wasn’t even something you’d find in a novel—completely unimaginable.
And besides, when you really thought about it, it had been ten years. Who’s to say my memory hadn’t been warped over time, my brain tricking itself into thinking any sufficiently handsome stranger was my first love? Or maybe he just looked similar and his surname was actually Park, or Kim. Even supposing he really was the same person, ten years was long enough that it’d be perfectly understandable not to recognize him……
No, how could anyone fail to recognize that face! I’d forget my own face before I’d forget his.
Unfortunately, I happened to be a fairly cowardly and pessimistic person. Choi Seol had recognized me. And on top of that, the noona had essentially just confirmed out loud that my name was Han Yeoreum. In that instant, I became an extremely suspicious person who’d lied to a paramedic, a police officer, a nurse, and basically everyone else present.
Am I actually going to jail over this? Come to think of it, they’d been suspicious about the accident earlier too. Because of how it looked like I’d deliberately pretended not to know him, I might really end up wrongly framed for something.
Ugh! Why did I walk straight into the tiger’s den on my own two feet?
The moment I’d heard he was awake, the place I should have run to wasn’t here—it should have been the taxi stand at the hospital entrance.
While I was racking my brain over what to do, my thoughts threatening to burrow straight through to the earth’s core, Choi Seol’s eyes had turned fierce enough to devour someone whole. The nurse’s suspicion seemed to deepen even further, and the police noona was too frightening to even look at.
Get it together, Han Yeoreum. Now was the time to actually do something. My hesitation didn’t last long. But Choi Seol, unable to wait even that brief moment, called my name again.
“Han Yeo…….”
“Huh? Oh, oh! Hey, wait, you’re Choi Seol, from Sangwon High School, first year, class seven?”
I deliberately pointed at Choi Seol with exaggerated motion, putting on a startled expression. My facial muscles had surely gone stiff with tension, so I doubted the act would actually work, but what choice did I have? I had to get out of this crisis first, no matter what.
“Wow, I didn’t recognize you. I kept thinking you looked familiar somehow—wow, you! How long has it even been? Ten years, maybe? You’ve really aged a lot. You’ve changed so much I almost couldn’t tell.”
Aged, my ass. If a face that aesthetically flawless counted as “aged,” then this guy had clearly had an old-soul face since his teens. If anything had changed, it was maybe the addition of some maturity, some decadent charm? He seemed taller than before too, and more solidly built. Now that I thought about it, when I’d tried to support him earlier, I’d ended up being the one practically embraced instead. And it wasn’t like my own build was small for an adult man, either. His body felt firm, like he’d kept up consistent training, and his scent carried something distinctly more grown-up. I’d thought it might be cologne, but thinking back on it now, it was closer to something more like a heavy, intimate skin scent……
Insane. Han Yeoreum, get a grip!
“Oh? So you two are old classmates.”
Thankfully, the nurse—who’d been the most suspicious of all—was the first to come around. Flashing the kind of professional smile I hadn’t used in ages, the one I used to put on for part-time jobs and senior soldiers in the army, I nodded.
“Exactly. I really don’t think there could be a coincidence like this. A whole ten years, I almost didn’t recognize him at all.”
I made sure to subtly emphasize that I hadn’t deliberately pretended not to know him—it was simply that so much time had passed I genuinely hadn’t recognized him.
“Well……. ten years, I guess that could happen. So that’s why you seemed off earlier—because you weren’t quite sure if it was really him?”
Hae-sook noona, who’d been standing there looking dazed, seemed to be coming around too, at least halfway. Now if only this guy would cooperate, everything would be fine.
“Ten years?”
But wait, what’s this guy’s problem now?
The expression on the face I’d locked eyes with had turned even more menacing than before. Now that I thought about it, back in school, Choi Seol hadn’t exactly been known for a friendly personality. Compared to back then, if anything, he seemed to have gotten even more dangerous-looking. Regardless, I had to keep smiling.
“Right, ten years. Ah! Well, technically we did see each other very briefly the following spring too, so if we’re being precise, it’s more like nine years and ten months……”
“What nonsense are you talking about? We met not that long ago.”
What is with this guy?
A sudden chill ran through me. At the same moment, the gazes of the nurse and the police noona landed on me, my smile frozen in place.
“Ha ha ha, you’re the one talking nonsense. How could we have possibly met not that long ago? I’m seeing you again after a really, really long time.”
“Han Yeoreum. Quit joking around, that’s enough.”
You crazy bastard, you’re the one who needs to quit!
Did he hit his head hard enough to actually lose it? But he looked far too serious for that. As if, to anyone watching, his words were obviously the truth. Thanks to that, the suspicious looks from the police noona and the nurse were reviving. This was genuinely unfair.
No, seriously, why does everyone believe him over me? Was it the face again? I felt a flash of frustration, but I forced my anger down and replied calmly.
“Choi Seol. I think you might’ve taken quite a hit to the head. Let me be clear—we did not meet yesterday. We didn’t meet the day before that either, and the day before that, and the day before that, I haven’t seen so much as a strand of your hair. So just rest for now. We can talk later……”
“What on earth are you talking about? Aren’t you the one who’s not right in the head?”
What is up with this guy, seriously?
Showing up after ten years—no, nine years and ten months—just to mess with me like this, what was his deal? I’d kept only the good memories of him tucked away in my heart all this time, precisely because he was my first love, but now I was starting to think this wasn’t a first love at all—this was a nemesis. In the end, all the anger I’d been holding back burst out at once.
“Hey, Choi Seol! You’re seriously going to do this? When exactly did I ever meet you? Who was the one who, the second the end-of-term ceremony was over, said goodbye without even a proper farewell and walked off without ever looking back!”
The moment it left my mouth, I realized my mistake, but it was too late.
“……End-of-term ceremony?”
This one seemed to land. Choi Seol’s fierce expression went blank. Thanks to that, I came back to my senses too.
“Yeah. You transferred schools right after the end-of-term ceremony.”
“Transferred? What nonsense is that? Why would I transfer schools?”
Something’s off here.
A strange sense of unease crept in. At the very least, the Choi Seol I knew wasn’t the type to stall for time with this kind of wordplay. But even if he were, why do it to me, of all people, after meeting again after so long? Why?
“Did the first year already……. end?”
Choi Seol muttered stiffly, staring at my face with a confused expression. Just as that searching gaze was starting to feel like too much, a sound of realization came from him.
“Now that I think about it, you do look a little older.”
“Wha—what? Hey, Choi Seol, that’s a bit much……”
“What year is it right now?”
Before I could properly start getting angry, Choi Seol turned to the nurse instead. He’d been ready to bite my head off, yet his voice toward the nurse was remarkably gentle. Sensing something was off too, the nurse kindly told him the date, the day of the week, the time, and even the full situation.
“……And the patient was brought in due to a car accident. This person here came along as a witness.”
Listening to her quietly, Choi Seol turned back to look at me again. His eyes were wavering uneasily.
Something really was off. Had he hit his head and something gone wrong? A sudden fear gripped me. That’s when Choi Seol murmured quietly.
“……doesn’t come.”
“What?”
“I don’t remember. Any of it.”
